Thinning of Brain Key to Detecting Risk of Depression, Researchers Find; Preventative Care of Depression May Be Improved

People who are at increased risk of developing depression due to a family history of the condition have less brain matter on the right cortex of their brains, a thinning of brain matter that is similar to what is seen in Alzheimer’s patients, new medical research indicates.

Brain scans of people with family histories of depression showed they had a 28-percent thinning of the outer layer of the brain compared to people who do not have a biological link to depression. Researchers now believe they may be able to better predict who is at greater risk of developing depression, a condition which affects millions of Americans, by looking at brain scans.

The findings, which are an encouraging and positive development in continuing research into the detection and treatment of depressive disorders, appear in the medical journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Depression Study Focuses on Brain Scans

Researchers looked at brain scans from 131 people between the ages of six and 54, some of whom had a family history of depression and some of whom did not. The team of researchers was hoping to find brain abnormalities which could indicate which people are predisposed to depression.

They found that people who reported a family history of depression had thinning of the right cortex of the brain, which could reduce the ability to detect and understand emotional and social cues sent by other people, causing symptoms of depression. Patients in the study who were actually battling depression also had thinning on the left side of the cortex, researchers said.

The study also found that patients with thinned brain material in the right cortex performed worse on attention and memory tests. That strongly suggests that thinning of the right hemisphere of the brain leaves people not only predisposed to depression but also reduces cognitive ability and attention, researchers said.

Encouraging Advances in Detection, Treatment of Depression

Depressive disorders are an epidemic in the United States, affecting nearly 20 million adults and 10 percent of the adult population each year. Major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder are some of the most common forms of depressive disorders. Surprisingly, about eight out of 10 people with a depressive disorder is not seeking any type of treatment for the condition.

Antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil are top-selling pharmaceuticals prescribed to millions of people battling depression. However, the drugs and others like them have been linked to devastating birth defects in children born to people taking the drugs and other severe problems and side effects.

News that researchers may have found an indicator of who is at increased risk of developing a depressive disorder is an encouraging development in the treatment of the condition. For years, doctors have been forced wait for signs and symptoms of depression to show up in people already battling the disorder instead of taking a proactive approach and working to prevent or limit the condition before it occurs.

Now, we may be on the brink of gaining an upper-hand advantage in the fight against depression with a new tool to better predict who may be predisposed to developing a depressive disorder.

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